Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By RICHARD JENKINS
Hurley -- The Iron County Board of Supervisors approved a letter of intent at its January meeting last week to purchase the former Hagemann dentist office on 5th Avenue as the future home of the Iron County Health Department.
The property is the current home of NorthLakes Community Clinic’s Hurley location.
Even with purchasing the property at the $80,000 value it was appraised for, county officials said the county would be saving money overall as it would no longer be paying rent on the health department’s current location.
“This is going to be something that is going to be covered in five years of rent at our current rent rate,” Iron County board chairman Joe Pinardi said. “And the building will be ours.”
The NorthLakes clinic is planning to move to another location in Hurley.
The letter of intent isn’t a binding document, according to its wording, so the county will still need to purchase the building before the health department can move from its present location at 502 Copper St.
The county currently pays roughly $20,000 a year in rent for the current location.
In other action, the board:
—Approved a new, three-year contract with Makela, Pollack & Ahonen for the county’s auditing services.
—Passed a resolution canceling any outstanding checks that are more than one year old.
—Decided against taking any formal action, but agreed Emergency Management Director Stacy Ofstad should move forward with a grant application to offset some of the costs of a necessary upgrade to the county 911 system.
